Monday, March 30, 2009

Today we were out and about and I'm so happy for the wonderful weather--the grass is GREEN! Really green! Yay! We stopped at CVS and Walgreens to celebrate. :)

At CVS I picked up:* 2 Sally Hensen nail polishes (BOGO) and use by $3/2 CVS coupon, to make them free* 2 Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubbers. They were $2.99, and I had 2 $2.75 off coupons, so they were about $0.50 for the two--and definitely something I'll use.* 1 AccuCheck meter (9.99, get 9.99) --to donate* 2 of the PAAS Easter egg coloring kits (1.99, get 1.99).* 1 bag of Jelly Beans (not pictured, on sale for $0.50--I thought I needed a filler, but am not sure if I really did. The jelly beans were not good--I tried them. And I'm not particularly picky on my sweets.)

All in all, I used $13.99 ECBs, plus $0.75 out of pocket (off of gift card) and got back $13.97 in ECBs. (3.98 for the 2 Paas, 9.99 for Accu-Check)

The BIG STORY is that we hit Walgreens afterwards. Cooper was nearing the end of his tolerance for shopping at this point, but I armed him with a biscuit to gnaw on (and an emergency sucker in my pocket) and he was good to go. We picked up:

So all in all I paid $1.28 before tax, making a total of $2.66 with tax. The cashier, Krystal, was SO nice and SO helpful. She didn't say anything rude, which has sadly been typical Wags behavior. She didn't throw any of my coupons back at me and say "I'm not taking this". She was just NICE. And if a coupon wouldn't have worked, that would have been fine, but I just appreciated her willingness to do her job and have great customer service. Very refreshing. I will definitely fill out my survey on the receipt and leave high marks for her, and even send an additional nice email to walgreens.com about her. Thank you Krystal, you made my day. And all the loot for $2.66 helped. :)

Friday, March 27, 2009

We hit up Meijer today, because I wanted to do the Kellogg's deal. Buy 3 Kellogg's cereals, get 1 free milk, Buy 5, get 2 free gallons, Buy 7, get 3 free gallons. I had 2 $0.70/1 coupons, so I was going to use them on the 5/$10 Kellogg's cereals that were on sale, making them just $1 each. I had kind of wished in my head that someone would leave some extra coupons behind by the cereals--you know how nice people do that, when they know they won't use them. I love that. Well, praise the Lord, someone left 3, 3!!! extra $0.70/1 coupons there! So that gave me 5 total, so that I could be 5 boxes for $5 total, and then get the coupons for two free milks!!! How awesome! I'm going to try and do that (leave extra coupons) more often, because it really made my day.

I also grabbed a loaf of $1.29 wheat bread and decided to do the Nabisco deal, where you buy 2 Nabisco products listed (most were 2 for $4) and get a gallon of milk free instantly. Milk is only $1.77 this week, but still, I'll take it for free. We needed milk (my main reason for going to Meijer) and so this would let me get the milk now, and not have to turn around and go get the milk to use my coupons--cause you are supposed to use the coupons on your next order. So I paid around $10 for 5 boxes of cereals, 2 boxes of Nabisco crackers, 1 loaf of break and 1 gallon of milk. I thought that was good. AND I got two coupons for 2 more free milks to use later!

A couple days ago, while browsing CVS, and picking up some Crest $3.49, get $3.49 toothpaste, I scanned my card at the coupon/price checker machine. To my disbelief, a $5 off $30 purchase printed off. That rarely happens to me, so I was excited! So I went home and plotted my $30 purchase, in hopes of gaining ECBs. Well, it didn't totally work out with much of a gain, but I did pretty good. Everything did not quite make it to the picture, but I'll list it out.

First, for half my total of $30, I got the Bayer Contour Meter, which I had a coupon for. It was $14.99, and the coupon is good up to $30, so it took off all $14.99. I bought the Diet Pepsi 3/$11, with the Buy 2 Get 1 free coupon, so it took $3.67 off, and I got 2 ECBs back for that. I got my 2nd Crest toothpaste (limit was changed to 2), with a $0.50 off coupon, and got the $3.49 ECBs back. I got the Schick Intuition razor (my personal favorite razor ever! You'll even shave every day through the winter with this razor ladies!) It was $8.99, minus a $4 coupon, and I got 3 ECBs back for it. I had a coupon for a free Diet Dr. Pepper ($1.49-$1.49= free), a coupon scanner coupon for $2 off any Ambi product--the bar soaps are only $1.99, so free again. And a scanner coupon for $1 off 2 Gold Emblem snacks. The chocolate covered raisens were $0.99 a bag--I got two, so it was $0.98 for two bags. They are yummy. With all of that, my total was around $34. Which let me be able to use my $5 off coupon! Yay!

So after coupons, I basically paid for two 12 packs ($7.34), the Crest ($3.49-$0.50 coupon=$2.99), and the $0.98 raisens. I used $12 in Extra Bucks, $0.54 in change and got $8.49 back in Extra Bucks. A loss in ECBs but I am a big diet pop drinker and I love the razors, so it was worth it.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Well, I don't really know why I started thinking about it already. I don't want my son to turn 2 any faster than he has to. :( But something triggered my brain this week to think about preparing for his birthday--which is the end of June and seems so far away. I guess we were at Kmart browsing, like we often do (because Kmart is really good about leaving out coupons for their shoppers, and I like to be part of that scavenger hunt.) Anyways, we strolled by the party decorations/favors/plates section and we were checking out the newest additions. My son is a fan of a couple cartoons, which of course, he watches in moderation, but he really likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, (1st birthday theme), Handy Manny and The Backyardigans. And Sesame Street too, mainly Elmo. So those are my options.. He had really become a tool man, just like his grandpa, and carries his plastic screwdriver all over the house "fixing" things non-stop, all day. Cute! Kmart did not have Handy Manny, though, but I noticed that Kmart has added The Backyardigans to their decoration mix, so that was a thought. Well, I guess I forgot about it a little, and then my mom stopped by today and it triggered me to think about it again, because I asked her what she thought for a theme. She agreed that Handy Manny would be cute, because he's so into it.

Later in the evening, Cooper and I decided to get out of the house a little bit, mainly because my husband was tired (he's dealing with 3rd shift issues right now) and we wanted to be quiet for him to rest. It was time...to head to...Party City...and check things out. :)

Right away, I stopped at the clearance bins they have at the front. I naturally go to all the clearance spots, regardless of what I'm looking for. It's just instinct. :) Low and behold, there were several Backyardigans clearance items. Party favors, mainly, but it was something. So this sent me to the other clearance spot and, to my amazement, more Backyardigans stuff! Invitations and Thank You notes, even!!! A couple more party favor things, but not much. The thing is, the price sticker was not on the Invitation/Thank you note spot, just the regular price ($3.79 or something.) So I grabbed a stack, and some other items and kept looking around the store. Out of the party favor stuff I picked up, the little magnetic picture frames said $2, coloring pads $2, temporary tatoos $0.50. So I figured the packs of Invitation/Thank You's would be $2 also. NO WAY! I had the cashier price check them and ... a pack of 8 invites with 8 postcard thank you notes ... $0.50!!!! I was sold. And since there was no Handy Manny anything, I knew this was a good decision. I also price checked the other stuff and the picture frames were actually $1 for a 4 pack (yes!) and I decided no on the coloring pads (they were some sort of water color thingy--not worth $2 to me.) I did buy 2 of the $0.50 temporary tatoo tapes--thought the kids might like to get a tribal tatoo of the Backyardigans on their arms. :)

There was a section of regular priced Backyardigans stuff too. Not outrageous prices, but nothing like clearance prices. I will definitely get either napkins or plates (I usually do a solid plate with a print napkin, or vise versa, instead of two prints--to save money of course.) The 16 packs of lunch napkins were only around $2, so I thought that was great. I want to price check Kmart to compare, but I imagine they aren't cheaper than that. I will also check out Big Lots for the solid plates--a lot of times they will have packs of solid color plates (not just white) so hopefully they'll have something that matches. And they always have huge bags of plastic utensils for around a buck.

So for my trip to Party City, in my way advanced preparation, I got 6 packs of 8 Invitations/8 Thank You notes ($0.50 each), 5 packs of 4 magnetic photo frames ($1 each), and 2 rolls of temporary tatoos ($0.50 each). Total of $9 plus tax. I really like the postcard Thank You notes, but may do something different with the invites. Since they all came in the same pack together, it was a win/win, even if I only use the front picture and not the inside or something. 8 Backyardigan Thank You notes for $0.50 is a great deal!!!

I also am going to check out the Nick Jr. website, because sometimes they will have party ideas and stuff. I know Disney does (www.playhousedisney.com/celebrationcenter, which I used for my son's 1 year birthday and the Mickey Mouse clubhouse theme.)

So, the moral of the story: Sometimes it pays to think and shop ahead. I really don't think I could find pre-made invitations and thank you notes that cheap, even if I made them and printed them off myself. And it saves me the brain power (which I am sometimes lacking) and the time. So I was happy with my pre-birthday planning. Now I can enjoy the next couple months even more before my baby turns two.

Monday, March 16, 2009

I ran into Kroger today to use up some Buddies coupons that were expiring. They only had 2 Buddies, so I grabbed a pack of the Johnson's baby q-tips, so it was about $0.67 for the three things, with the $3 off any Johnson's coupon. Anyway, I had a Kroger home mailer coupon for $1 off a 1/2 gallon of OJ, so I went back to grab it, and realized it was only $0.88 this week. Overage for me! But the milk 1/2 gallons are all only $0.88 too. So I grabbed a couple, cause that's hard to beat. $1.76 for a whole gallon worth. It's rarely under $2 so I thought I'd share. I do try and combine my milk buying with my CVS trips, but I thought this was a good deal, and I'd lay off of my Extra Bucks for a couple days.

Oh, I don't know if this is common knowlegde, speaking of coupons that are expiring, but does anyone else use coupons past the expiration date? I've never had a problem with them beeping as long as they are not more than a month over the expiration date. I don't know if they just do this so you have some wiggle room, but I've tested it a lot and unless I'm not buying the right product or size, they don't beep. If you are feeling gutsy, try it. Why wouldn't they beep if they are expired?

Friday, March 13, 2009

CVS wasn't too hot this week. :( But we needed some Cheerios around here, so I thought I'd do the "Buy $10 General Mills products, Get $5" deal, so we headed that way. Also, I just like to get out of the house when possible. It's a nice day here in SW Ohio, so off we went. I also had a $2 off Playskool wipes CRT (printed from the price checker/coupon scanner), a FREE Diet Dr. Pepper coupon (from http://www.freedietdrpepper.com/ --great deal, can sign up each email account you have), and a coupon for a Free Suave product (home mailer). So I bought 3 boxes of Cheerios (3/$10) and the other 3 products. I didn't have any appropriate Cheerios coupons (used them all already), so I had a 10 ECB (Extra Care Bucks--cvs $ coupon) to pay for all of the above. The Suave coupon took off $3, instead of the $2.69 price, so that helped take some tax off my order. My total was $9.98, I had the $10 ECB adjusted down, and paid $0.00 out of my pocket! I love the $0.00 total. It's the best! I did receive my 5 ECBs back. Hopefully next week there will be some better deals so I can get at least the total amount of ECBs I spent back. That's always my goal, but lately hasn't been happening as much.

(I do know that Dry Idea deodorant will be $2.99 next week, giving out $2 ECBs. There is a $2 Dry Idea coupon on coupons.com, so that's a moneymaker! So go and print that off right away! And I actually only use that kind of deodorant, so that's extra good.)

We made a stop at Target on the way home. I wanted to get some more Motts applesauce and some goldfish crackers. Motts are $1.67 at my Target. Target has store coupons at http://www.afullcup.com/ and there is a $1 off Motts coupon, so I printed that off to use. I also printed a manufacturer's coupon for $0.55 off the Motts, but the cashier wouldn't take it. :P The goldfish crackers were $1.74 and there was also a Target coupon for $1 off those. Then I grabbed some Zone bars because of the awesome Buy 1 Get 3 free coupon that you get when you sign up and log into your Zone Perfect account. The cashier rang it up wrong, and somehow I think I got them all free. She was already annoyed with me, so I didn't fight her and my total was $1.41. Basically the $0.67 of the Motts plus the $0.74 of the Goldfish crackers.

I've been having a lot of problems with cashiers not ringing up the Zone coupon right. Once, they only gave me B1G1 free, and I didn't catch it, but usually they give me more off than I should get. ??? What do you do--do you correct them if they add wrong?

So my total for the day was $1.41 for all of the loot in the picture. I do need to run out and get some milk, (we ran out faster than I thought) so I'll probably have one more CVS trip today, but probably won't make anything from it.

I've been blogging for a little while now, but mainly about my little one. I really wanted to start a blog about the great deals I find day by day and week by week. I've been a clearance section shopper as far back as I can remember. I really became a big fan of Goodwill when I hit the penny pinching college years. I've long been a garage sale shopper, but it really picked up once we had a little one on the way. I was introduced to shopping at CVS over a year ago and can't believe how much I've saved at CVS. It's a main shopping addiction right now, since I can just shop with Extra Care Bucks, and not much money out of my pocket. I occasionally hit Walgreens, but seem to always come out with a bad experience. I've done a few Rite Aid deals, but again, just when they are really hot. Meijer and Kroger are the main grocery stops for me. I usually don't do groceries at Walmart, but if it's free or close to free, I'll be there.

I imagine it will take me a little while to get into a blogger groove, especially on how to layout my posts and stuff. But stick around and we'll see how it goes. I hope my shopping obsession can save you some money too.